{"id":11710,"date":"2017-02-03T04:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=11710"},"modified":"2023-10-07T03:42:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T07:42:17","slug":"figging-around-at-dancing-bear-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=11710","title":{"rendered":"Figging Around at Dancing Bear Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A black fig ripens on the tree at Dancing Bear Farm in Leyden, Massachusetts. Courtesy of the Recorder\/Paul Franz.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The harvest season is over in Western Massachusetts\u2014although local produce still abounds: apples, cabbages, squash. At this time of year farmers have the mental and physical energy to plan for next year. Best of all, they find time to dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Dancing Bear Farm<\/a> in Leyden Tom Ashley and his wife, my fellow journalist Trish Crapo, are dreaming of something they will call the figtorium.<\/span><\/p>\n

The figtorium will be a greenhouse designed to accommodate Tom\u2019s growing fig harvest. Dancing Bear Farm has been in business for 25 years, but Tom grew his first figs only eight years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I spoke recently with the couple, Tom explained that his love of figs began in the fall of 2008. He was inspired by a longtime customer named Marie. (He didn\u2019t think she would want her last name reported.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A teacher who lives in Brooklyn, Marie has a second home in Leyden. She has been a loyal customer of Dancing Bear since the farm started in 1981.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is Italian American and lives in an Italian neighborhood,\u201d Tom told me. \u201cEverybody there has their fig trees and their grapes and a small garden [of plants] that they brought from the old country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a very nice relationship over the years of sending stuff home with her in the fall, garlic for her neighborhood. Eight years ago she brought me four dead sticks and said, \u2018Here, put these in the greenhouse, and see what happens.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point I knew nothing of figs. They sat around the greenhouse for a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He received a phone call from Marie, urging him to plant the sticks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, sure. Figs. All right, Marie,\u2019\u201d Tom remembered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Tom Ashley with some of his figs.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The sticks went into the ground. Two of the four took root, combined themselves into one large tree, and began producing fruit the following spring. The tree is still going strong today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom said he was impressed when he tasted the fruit. \u201cI had never experienced anything like that before,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d had dried figs or Fig Newtons\u2026. It was very different from any other fruit. Very sweet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSweet but light,\u201d chimed in Trish Crapo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom discovered that his fig tree grew quickly. Soon it hugged the ceiling of his plastic greenhouse. \u201cI had\u00a0to prune the tree. It just took off like a sumac,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWhatever [cuttings] I took off the tree, I thought, ‘Those will grow, too.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He placed the cuttings in pots. \u201cThe next year, I had more figs and all these trees growing in pots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon Tom began doing research about fig trees. Native to many areas of the world and cherished particularly in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region, figs are an ancient plant.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are also a healthy fruit\u2014full of antioxidants. They contain ingredients that can help fight cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, and many other diseases.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA fig may have been the fruit in the Garden of Eden, not an apple,\u201d Trish Crapo informed me. In the warmer climates of figs\u2019 native habitat they grow profusely outdoors.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had never seen figs growing so I enjoyed visiting Dancing Bear Farm in late October to see what all the fuss was about. Tom Ashley\u2019s fig trees were then lush and tall. The winding wood was pleasing to the eye, and the large leaves were highly decorative.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo wonder they used to wear them back in the old days,\u201d Tom told me with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

He picked a fig off a tree for me to taste on the spot. Figs are unusual in that they don\u2019t flower. Their flowers are actually the inside of the fig. My fig tasted sweet and rich. The skin, fruit, and seeds provided a nice combination of textures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom and Trish first met at Hampshire College, where Tom managed the coop and was among the first people to think of starting an organic garden on a college campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe already valued sustainability and local agriculture in 1980,\u201d Trish said proudly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Trish arranges figs on a plate.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

After college the two looked for a plot of land of their own. They fell in love with the land that would become Dancing Bear Farm, which has a spectacular view of the Pioneer Valley. Soon they set down literal and figurative roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking forward, Tom sees his fig cultivation and the planned figtorium as key. He admitted that he could repair his current plastic greenhouse instead of constructing a new one. He sees defects in this plan, however.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe greenhouse isn\u2019t quite big enough for the trees, and it\u2019s a little tight on the sides,\u201d he observed. \u201cWhy would you put new soles on a pair of shoes that didn\u2019t really fit you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With the figtorium\u2014a larger, non-plastic greenhouse\u2014he will be able to accommodate his fig trees and expand his fig crop. He hopes that figs will become one of three or four strong crops on which he can concentrate in future.<\/span><\/p>\n

This concentration will strengthen his crops and give him more time to do the educational outreach he has already begun through newsletters to customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment he sells both figs and fig trees. Eventually, he would like to work with etymologists to do research on the fig wasp\u2014a miniscule insect that helps figs spread in the wild. He would also like to experiment with farming methods that might help fig trees survive in colder weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom hopes that the figtorium will make his life richer, more interesting, and less physically stressful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want his life to be a lot easier,\u201d Trish said of her husband. \u201cHe works really hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tom takes pride in his figs and fig trees. Several years ago, he told me, his friend Marie brought him a new fig-tree cutting from friends who were visiting from Sicily. When the friends returned to the United States a couple of years later she brought them to Dancing Bear Farm.<\/span><\/p>\n

The friends don\u2019t speak English so not a lot was said. Nevertheless, Tom informed me, they managed to give him two thumbs up when they saw the tree their cutting had produced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe communicated back and forth our mutual respect. Marie told me later that my tree was doing better [than the one her friends had] back in Sicily,\u201d he recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere along the line I seem to have developed a fig thumb.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Ashley and Trish Crapo frequently experiment with fig cookery. \u201cIn a way we\u2019re in a unique position that most people are not in,\u201d Trish told me. \u201cWe have too many figs. It\u2019s a wonderful challenge.\u201d They report that even the leaves can be used in cooking, to wrap around foods.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pair gave me some figs to play with\u2014and I remembered that years ago my graduate-school roommate Alice Gagnard and I used to receive care packages of fig jam from her mother in Alexandria, Louisiana.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have Louise Gagnard\u2019s recipe\u2014she unfortunately died while I was doing research for this article\u2014but when Tom Ashley gave me some frozen figs I concocted my own version of the jam as a memorial tribute to Louise. She always had a pot of coffee on the stove and a smile on her face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Louise raising a glass of sparkling cider. (Courtesy of Alice Gagnard Kendrick)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Fig Jam inspired by Louise Gagnard<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

6 cups chopped figs, packed
\n4-1\/2 cups sugar
\nthe juice of 1 large lemon (if you really love lemon flavor, use the zest as well)
\na dab of butter<\/span><\/p>\n

Instructions:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In a 4-quart Dutch oven combine the figs, the sugar, the lemon juice, and the zest if you are using it. Mash the figs a bit with a potato masher. (They don\u2019t have to be completely mashed.) Allow the mixture to sit for at least 1\/2 hour to enable the figs to juice up a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stir again, turn on the stove, and bring the mixture to a boil, adding just a little butter to minimize foam. Reduce the heat and simmer the jam, stirring from time to time, until the jam becomes thick and starts to gel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Test for gelling by using a candy thermometer (the mixture should come to 220 degrees Fahrenheit or a little under) or by inserting a cool metal spoon in the jam. When the jam comes off the spoon in sheets it is done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turn off the heat and stir the jam for five minutes to make sure that the figs are evenly dispersed throughout. Ladle the jam into sterilized jars, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. If you don\u2019t want to process the jars, you may keep the jam in a Used Stainless Steel Three Door Commercial Freezer<\/span><\/a> for a couple of months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

I’m enjoying my fig jam!<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The harvest season is over in Western Massachusetts\u2014although local produce still abounds: apples, cabbages, squash. At this time of year farmers have the mental and physical energy to plan for next year. Best of all, they find time to dream. At Dancing Bear Farm in Leyden Tom Ashley and his wife, my fellow journalist Trish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[662,728],"tags":[1850,1853,1854,1856,1852,1786,1855,1851],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11710"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13132,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11710\/revisions\/13132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}